Cory+-+Sarah



Hello, I'm Cory. I'm an only child and I am 15. I like to read Science Fiction and watch action movies. My teacher Mrs. Sabey said you are studying Medicine and English. I'm looking forward to talking with you.

My name is **Youya**.**Sarah** is my English name.I'm **19** already.I have a **brother** who is older than me.Although I'm a **college** school student and you're a **high school** student, I still think we have much to **communicate**,such as your high school life or my college school life. I have went through high school, so i have rich experiencs to **share** with you.Sharing experiences will be a lot of **fun**! I think only by **communicating** with American can I learn **the real American** life and **the real society** of America.The same,you can learn the **real China**.You may find that the real China is different from the one your medias report. My email is youya190@hotmail.com. We can chat both on **MSN** and on **Wikispace**.
 * Hi,Cory**:

Hi Sarah Now that you said it I am wondering what it is like in high school in China? I know that here in the States that we have private and public school. Public is paid for by taxes and private is paid for by your family. Do you have Public or Private schools and do you have to pay for them? How is college? Do you enjoy it? What classes are you taking? I agree that there is more to China than what our media reports and I would love to know more. In fact Mrs. Sabey has friends in China and has a way for students who are interested in visiting China to visit. And I am hoping to be able to go visit China my Senior year (4th year in high school and 12th year of school). Feel free to ask me any questions you have about America and I will do my best to answer them.

Hi,Cory I'm sorry that my __respond__ (response) is late.Chinese education is divided into compulsory education and higher education(high school ,college and so on).Students don't need to pay for tuition fees during compulsory education.The same as US.There are public and private schools.Most of Chinese schools are public ones.And what i attended from primary school to university are all public schools .So what i know about private schools is narrow.But it is sure that students who attend private school need to pay much more than those who attend public ones. My university is called Beijing University of Chinese Medicine(BUCM).We have two majors---English and acupuncture.Our goal is to introduce acupuncture to foreigners.As to my university,i have complex feelings about it .It is small and not new.You can't find beautiful architectures.you won't be satisfied with my university at first sight.But after these __monthes (months)__,i become fond of BUCM.I find that it is the pioneer of Chinese medicine field.Many famous masters gather in BUCM.What i appreciate most is the academic __atmospher__(e).Students are really __dilligent__ (diligent).I become proud of my university gradually. It is said that US kids are creative ,which (is) thanks to the US education.So i am curious about the way your teachers teach you.My question may be a bit difficult or boring.You can just answer some of my following questions.Are you encouraged to express your ideas?What if your answer to teachers' questions are different or strange?Do you often doubt what your teachers have said?And what if you point out your different ideas against your teachers'?The last one,have you ever done something creative? I'm glad to hear that you hope to visit China.I think from now on you should learn more about China.If you come to China with purpose,your satisfaction will be guaranteed. Ok,let me stop here.I am looking forward to your respond(response). PS:i am still an English learner.If what i said above is not correct or proper,i would appreciate it if you can point it out.

Sarah- I underlined thing that are incorrect and gave you the correct version in parenthesis and the only other thing is to capitalize your i's when you are talking about one's self. But these are very minor things, I still correct my self on these things. Your English is very good. To help answer your questions I will give you some background knowledge. The U.S. Department of Education has requirements for each age groups but that is all. Then each state refines those requirements. But after that each school district, which are close to the city districts, create a curriculum which says what each grade will learn. As long a teacher is teaching the curriculum they can have their own style of teaching. In English if you are writing an essay they will give you guide lines, but if its a creative piece like a memoir or fictional story they want as much creativity as possible. They really encourage the creative side of us. In other classes like Science or History when a teacher asks a question like, what are some of the affects of World War 2, they will have specific answers they are looking for but they like to hear different ones too. they accept that they may have over looked some and the students generally come up with a few that were not said before. Each teacher is different. In class discussions, as long as it's relevant, teachers and students alike will respect everyone's opinion but may disagree with them. Often you will have a discussion between several people on apposing sides of the same subject. And if you would like an example of one of these discussions, it may not be the best but, you can go to this link. This is a live blog that my biology class had with another class today on the subject of evolution verses creationism: Biology Discussion also here is a blog we have in English about what we may be reading or something related to class: @http://leclaire1english10.blogspot.com/. In these ways we are encouraged to express our ideas. there are times I have doubted my teachers and I will ask them for proof to back up there claim and usually we can resolve my question or confusion. I have done many things that are creative. My wikispace for English has a project I did on a book I read and it also has my own memoir I wrote. here is that link: http://corypenglish10.wikispaces.com/ I hope that answered some of your questions and if you need clarification on anything I wrote please tell me. Hopefully that helps. PS: Any questions you have about english I'd be glad to answer. and here is my email if you'd like to email me. bcoryp@gmail.com and I thank you for those questions they made me think about things that I usually don't think about, and I love things that make me think.

====** Hi Cory: When I opened our page, I got a shock. Having read your reply, I was deeply moved. For one thing, you helped me to correct my mistakes. For another, you spent much time in answering my questions. I can’t be more satisfied. It’s great to see that our discussion is hot. So let’s keep the temperature. How is your Chinese going? When is the time that I can help you with your Chinese? I will still be very happy if you can say something basic,like:ni hao( 你好 ) ， xie xie( 谢谢 ) etc.I believe they are good start. Let’s make a promise : making progress together. OK? We can be the instructors each other and I’m sure we can make a difference. It snowed some days ago and it’s bitterly cold with sharp wind. How about the weather now there? Have it snowed these days? Oh, I heard that the situation of H1N1 in US is serious and many schools have stopped classes. So it is with Beijing .H1N1 is also spreading fast .How about your district? We both should take care of ourselves. Can you see my pic on the top?I don't know how to move it to the bottom.The pic was taken some days ago.**====

Ni Hao Sarah 你好吗？(I need a bigger vocabulary for what I want to say)

我很忙. 【**have been :yijing已经】** 学 trigonometry**.[i don't know what you mean by trigonometry ]** I hope that's right but I know I need a bigger vocabulary and hopefully my next response will have more Chinese in it. In class my Chinses has been going pretty well Mrs. Sabey is an excellent teacher and I'm happy to have her as my teacher. To help learn Chinese we have been learning stories and right noow we are working on Ganen jie de gushi Thanksgiving story and its a lot of fun. I was wondering if the links I added worked? and to add a picture in the text you press enter and use the toolbar to insert a pic. here is something I did in a drawing program on my computer. This is a map I created when I was bored one day.

so if that doesn't work let me know. you can always email me the pic and I can post it where you want it. I love the pic you took its really cool. I can tell it took a lot of work and I'm impressed. The weather has been typical Colorado weather, unpredictable. It was really warm 70F / 21C and then it snowed two days later. But I love the weather it's so much fun. Most of the time it will snow and two days later it will be 70 again. The H1N1 is getting a little worse but its still not too bad the news is over reporting it though so everybody thinks a little cold is the Flu. But I think my school went through the major amount of kids being sick back in August and September. Most of the Flu cases are H1N1 but those cases are like only 1 or 2 percent of the population. Im curious do you do any martial arts like Karate or Kempo. I was reminded of this because a couple of days ago I was judging a Tae-Kwondo tournament. I'm really happy because my master trusted be enough to let me help judge. But when I woke up this morning i was really sore and I didn't realize judging was such a physically consuming thing. If I can get a pic taken of a painting I did I will try and get that posted too. So I'll leave it at that or I'll talk all night.

P.S. if my link works and you would like to post a comment on my blog feel free @http://coryp-make-you-think.blogspot.com/

Hi cory I’ve read your letter over. I’m happy to see that the frequency of our communication has been increasing. I find that our topics are enlarged. Let’s keep it. I’m terribly sorry that none of your links is **(are)** available. In fact, the speed of my school’s Internet is to blame. But you can send the pictures to my e-mail .As to your blog, I will vist it as soon as I arrive at home. You are making a breakthrough. Your Chinese time started **(I don't know what you are saying here)** .I hope that you will make**( I would say show instead of make)** me see your progress everytime you write to me. If you have any requests of helping you with Chinese, you should remember me -- the far-away “Chinese teacher”. It’s lovely to share your experience .It must have made a deep impression on you since you wanted to tell it to me. Your experience of being a judge is valuable. I can make out some of your virtues :responsible, enthusiastic and reliable. You asked me if i have done any martial arts. Yeah, but not Karate, Kempo or Tae-Kwondo, it's Wushu .I’m crazy about fencing(swordplay) which belongs to Wushu.If you have never heard about it ,you can see some pictures of Chinese fencing. I joined Wushu association and then I started to learn fencing with a grade- 4 student who is very good at it. Learning fencing is really a tough thing. I always get pains in my right arm ,legs and back after training. But I think my efforts pay off. I can do many motions well .With a sword in my hand and under my control, I feel I’m a heroine. lol There isn’t much homework to do today.So I have plenty of time to write things above.But I’m not sure whether we will be fortunate (in) latter days. If you have enough time, please pick out my mistakes above. Thanks a lot. []（fencing）

Ni Hao Sarah

I will Remember you when I need help with something. That is so cool that you fence. Lol I too have felt that way when i can get a difficult kick or form down and it feels great. I find it so cool that we have so much we can relate with. Oh! and I forgot to add that photo of my Painting which I really wanted to do. There is just so much to say that its hard to decide what to write. When I said Trigonometry up above its a subject of math it deals with triangles and functions for them.

Hi Cory Oh, thank you for your lovely painting. Your painting reminds me of a famous artist: van Gogh. I used to have great difficulty in appreciating his paintings .What he has drawn is so exaggerated. Your painting shows that you were free in mind when you were drawing, regardless of lifelikeness .When I learned painting in primary school ,however, I was taught to draw beautiful things ,so I couldn’t express my own feelings .For 4 years as I had learned painting, I just learned to draw things vividly. Without drawing for so many years, I almost lose my ability of drawing. How about your Chinese learning these days? Have you learned new expressions or something related with Chinese culture?

Ni Hao Sarah sorry it took me so long to respond. I find it interesting you compare me to Van Gogh the painting really irritated me when I was painting it because I worked for two weeks straight on it, and to this day find things to criticize it in. but as they say "you're your own worst critic." But thank you for the comparison it makes me want to do more. we have been working so much on the story for thanksgiving we hadn't learned much else we're now working on a story of our own like that. I would love to more about your culture i just don't know which question to ask first. Umm .... Lets start here, I know you have a national/federal government and I know you have provinces but who runs the provinces do you have a Governor or someone like him? I really love history and I know bits and pices of your history, do you have any interesting historical facts? I know that Americans have lots of their own history but they tend to forget it. if you have any history questions for me feel free to ask. We may be planning a project where we will pick a province and write about it and share it with the class to learn more of China's lishi

Cory It’s my turn to apologize. I’ve been busy with a ppt on Christmas with 2 of my classmates, which is the topic our class will be discussing. Doing the work is really a tough task, for there are so many cultural and historical things linked with Christmas. However, I enjoy the process , because burdening the task, I’m forced to read large quantities of articles to choose my materials of the speech. A good advantage of it is that many of my abilities are working out and I’m sure my abilities are progressing. You said you have been working much on the story for thanksgiving. Right? I hope you don’t complain but look at the benefits it brings to you. Now, I’ll try my best to answer your questions. Chinese political system is so different from the US. China has 23 provinces, 4 **municipality directly under the Central Government(directly governed city region (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing)), 5 national autonomous regions (Tibet ,Xinjiang ,etc) and 2** SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS (Hongkong ,Macao) .Each one has a governor. However, they seldom speak publicly, not like governors of the US. I know Schwarzenegger is a world- famous governor. As for Chinese history, haha, you really give me a huge project. Chinese history is as long as 5000 years .If let me tell you the stories, you know you probably feel sick. But I can recommend some webpages to you .They will be helpful. [] []

Sarah

Wow that is so cool that you guys have that much information in one place to get that here you almost have to find a history textbook to get that much information. what did you do for the project about chritsmas? it's one of my favorite holidays and so it's interesting what other people would think that haven't seen every custom and gotten used to them where they become everyday life.

Cory Christmas is just around the corner, I wish you merry Christmas and happy new year in advance. My two other classmates and I made the PPT about Christmas and introduced them to the whole class for 2 reasons. 1) we would learn the article of 《 Christmas day in the morning 》 written by Pearl S. Buck. Most of us are not quite familiar with Chirstmas for it is not out tranditional festival .2) We are eager to learn English well, so it’s of great of importance to learn your culture. Although we were just expected to make a brief introduction, we still needed to search tons of information on the Internet. The articles about Santa Clause, Christmas celebrations and Christmas eve are not difficult to understand. While we were spoiled by the history of Christmas because it is related to religion .We had to turn to our foreign teacher. She said most westerners just know that Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus .Nothing more than that. I know the introduction from the books or the Internet are the typical aspects. As a matter of fact, celebrations are changing with time going by .Some people don’t keep the old traditions any more. so I am eager to know how your ordinary families in the US have Christmas. In addition something about you: do you wait for the Santa Clause giving Christmas presents on the Christmas eve ? what Christmas presents did your parents send you last Christmas ? I hope you share your interesting or impressive Christmas memory. Our Chinese most important festival is Spring Festival just like your Christmas. Spring Festival is Chinese new year. If you want to know something about it ,I’d like to tell you. I really like your Christmas very much .I think love is the theme of Christmas. love for kids ,family, friends and society etc. Although Christmas is in the coldest time of the year, but it makes people feel warm from heart. I appreciate Christmas

**Im sorry it has taken me so long to respond.**
====**The time just before Christmas and the time just after is very busy for every one. Christmas is the biggest holiday as you know and soon after ward people go back to work and kids go back to school. As for Christmas memories I have a lot. Most years my Mama, Baba and myself go out and pick our a tree, on occasion we would go into the mountains to cut our own. Going out and choosing a tree is a family event for most families. There is nothing quite like the smell of a pine tree to freshen your house and get you in the holiday spirit. Then my mom and I will bring up the boxes of ornaments and decorate the tree. My mom and have alwasy decorated the tree and my dad would do the finishing touch of adding Tinsel. Every year in the past my mom dad and I would go over to my grandma's for Christmas eve dinner and then the whole family would open their gifts to each other, then the next morning my mom, dad, and I would open our presents to our selves. This year was special because last year my grandma past away and then in june mom sold her house. Along with that my mom had to work Christmas day so we opened our presents this year on Christmas eve. something special I got this year was a water bed. my mom also got me art supplies and clothes, lots of clothes. But its good I got clothes because I keep growing out of my old ones. In years past mom and i would go to Christmas eve mass at the church we go to. This year we went to the Cathedral for midnight mass which was really cool. Your right some people dont keep the old traditions and it makes me sad. There are way to many fake Christmas trees and other little things that made the holiday so special.**==== ====**Isn't the Chinese New Year coming up soon? I think, from the small amount i have heard, that this would be a fun tradition to be a part of and celebrate. I would love to hear more about your holidays. They also sound like they are much more set in Tradition.**====

**On another note how is your English and classes coming along? How has the weather been and what is new in Beijing?**
I figured since you gave me a photo of your self I should give you a couple of mine

Hi pal You are so cute! lol. Please excuse me for responding late. I was preparing for my exams. Then, after exams, I went back home. It was really difficult to set aside some time for other things. Now ,I am totally free now ,for we are in winter vacation. Thank you for sharing your Christmas memories and your pics. I thought that the Christmas trees are plastic or made of other materials .You said your Christmas trees are real pine trees. It broadens my horizons. I think your family is harmonious. Although so many things happened to your family, you still keep Christmas tradition ,which sets a good example to us. Christmas is becoming more and more popular in Chinese mainland. Some Chinese young people consider it fashionable to celebrate Christmas day. As for Chinese festivals, Spring festival is the most important one. It is on Feb.14, just around the corner. Other festivals are becoming more and more unimportant .Lacking festival atmosphere is the argument. Many Chinese attach importance to the holidays duing the festivals but not the festivals itself. They take advantage of the time to relax or travel. That’s a pity! After one term’s systemic English training ,I think I’ve had a big improvement on my English. I spent a lot of time watching American movies and TV series ,such as Ugly Betty .But what American people say is really difficult for me to understand. For example, you say “what the hell” rather than“ what happened”. So it occurred to me that what people say in daily life is different from Written English. I realized that I should learn English not only from books but also from your daily lives. Nothing serious happened in Beijing. We should pay more attention to Haiti’s earthquake .They are really poor.

你好不好?
====Wow I didn't know that about china that more people are celebrating Christmas. But the first thing i have to say is that "ugly betty" may not be the best tv show to what for the language. Yes it can be funny or entertaining but its not the best language tool. there are other shows and movies that show the language better. And like China we have many different accents to the language. some people go as far to say that Texans speak a different language, they don't really but its still different. People really do say "what happened" and its usually when they're surprised that they use "what the hell." There are formal and informal versions and on very few occasions do we use the formal version. There are a lot of different meaning to some words and it can difficult for normal citizens to figure out words. so don't feel bad that we cant speak our own language.==== ====On another note entirely I'm going to be traveling to Ireland over spring break and with their accent I may not understand everything they say. It can be hard for English speakers to understand each other that's for sure. If you have any questions on phrases that we use that don't make sense let me know and I'll see if I can get you an answer. Do you ever plan on traveling to the U.S.? Sorry that was a little random.====

====It is sad whats happening in Haiti. Its the poorest country in the western hemisphere and it needs all the help it can get. but when you have a government that steals or hogs all the money from the people its kind of what happens.====

Pal~ I’m fine .I’m glad to see that you can say “how are you “in Chinese. Well, we usually say “ 你好吗 ?” rather than “ 你好不好 ?”. It’s ok, but not so common. You are right. I won’t treat Ugly Betty as learning materials any longer. I really appreciate the nice sound of pure American English, which is like singing, especially the girls’ voices, like Betty. I hope I could pronounce like American girls. These days, I’ve been searching for slangs that you usually use .I find them really interesting and clever. However, some are not easy to understand, which is probably caused by the culture gap. “Don’t drag your feet too long” means “don’t hesitate”, right? So humourous .Here are some slangs that I don’t understand. 1. She knows how to work a crowd 2. skeleton in the closet 3. a fat chance 4. I got the tip straight from the horse’s mouth. 5. hit the road=leave? I supposed hit the road means kill oneself. I expect you live dictionary to make me clear. Nearly all Chinese English learners have made ridiculous mistakes. Take two as examples, make tea and make coffee are quite right, but some Chinese think of making water as pouring water for someone. Another one, one American professor said: I want to go somewhere (he meant the restroom), but his Chinese student said :yes, you can go everywhere, which surprised the professor a lot. US culture is spreading more and more widely in China, which attracts many Chinese young people to study or live there. As for me, I may plan to US after I achieve economic independence. I admire US young people beyond 18 because they are really independent. They achieve goals by their own hands, who really influence me a lot. I’d love to hear your good experiences after you come back from Ireland. How is your Chinese learning going? When is your winter vacation? Have you got any problems about your subjects? I may share my experiences about learning the subjects.

Hey pal alright I'll try and translate but some are definitely used more often than others. 1. I believe this is something to the meaning of; she knows how to get peoples attention and keep they're attention or she knows how to get a group of people to do what she wants. 2. skeletons in the closet are like bad secrets from a while ago that someone doesn't want people to know. like if a man cheated on his wife years ago he wouldn't want people to know and would "hide the skeleton in the closet". 3. a fat chance is usually sarcastic and meaning that there is probably no way it could happen. like a kid who isn't as smart and wants to win the science fair has a fat chance cause the really smart kids are going to do really good projects. 4. I think this one means that I got the tip right from the expert or something like that if I had a tip from a science teacher about why my experiment was going wrong and he fixed it I might say to someone else that I got the tip right from the horses mouth but that's just my interpretation. 5. hit the road does mean leave but used in the context of starting a journey or resuming a journey or trip. if my friends and I had stoped for lunch on a road trip when we finished lunch I would say "lets hit the road guys" and it would mean "lets leave guys".

a lot of these phrases have a lot to do with how they are used and in what way. that's one of the worst aspects of English where you can have a word but it could be used a ten different ways depending on context, subject and phrasing. Ok I could see where a professor could do that because there are somethings that are obscure to begin with and add a class of learning students and it could be bad, and funny all learners make mistakes and most comes with understanding the culture you may understand the language but the culture can trow everything out the window. if you want an example of a movie with mistakes like that watch __Shanghai Knights__ is a movie with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson and its funny but it shows how mistakes aren't that bad and you learn but it definitely takes culture. Trust me you guys aren't the only ones who still need economic independence to be able to be independent, There are tons of 18 year olds that come home from college to have mom and dad wash there clothes or give them gas money cause they dont have the money. yeah we can go and do what ever we want but we have to have the money to pay for it.

I still have 3 weeks till I go to Ireland and I'm looking forward to it. there is so much preparation going into this trip that its made me nervous and really excited at the same time. Winter vacation has been 6 weeks gone now. we have our break over Christmas and our New Years. in High school we get two weeks but in college they get a whole month. but its nice to have the break. Even though we already had winter break we are looking forward to Spring break in three weeks and it will be nice to have that time to relax.

Chinese is a lot of fun and we are finally getting to the point where we have enough vocabulary to start conversing in it. We are about to start learning the story: 什么也不怕的老奶奶shénme yě bù pàde lǎonǎinǎi and i am really looking forward to it. I am definitely having problems in math because I didn't like algebra and am terrible at it, so pre-calculus is hard.

Hi, Cory I should apologize for my responding late. Your spring break may have begun. Perhaps you have set off for Ireland .I hope you enjoy your travel .When you return from Ireland, I will be glad to hear your new findings :culture ,language or lifestyle differences ,anything. What I know about Ireland is extremely limited. I know teenagers’ views are always creative .I hope you could compare something and think of them deeply, thus your travel will be meaningful. I wonder why you choose Ireland as destination ? did your ancestors immigrate from Ireland ?or one of your parents has business there? Or for some reason else ? Those slangs I asked you before are chosen from American movies. Chinese translations for these are not clear. Thanks for your help .Your carefulness and patience impress me a lot. You said you were learning an article : 什么也不怕的老奶奶. lol. It reminds me of the early years of learning English .We also started from simple and interesting stories. When you learn Chinese, you may notice the different way of thinking or speaking. Take 什么也不怕的老奶奶  as example. “ 什么也不怕的  ” modifies “  老奶奶  ”,so in Chinese ,modifiers are put ahead of subjects. well, in english ,you say an old grandma who dares nothing right? So learning Chinese can be fun as well as tough. If you want to learn math well ,I think you should do more math problems. Math is a subject deals with figures. Algebra is the base of higher math. I remember we learnt many formulas in algebra books. How to use them intelligently is the key. Formulas are served for calculating easier and faster. When in middle school and junior high school ,I worked out a great many math problems. My efforts were paid off. Till now ,I still remember many formulas. when Acquiring new math knowledge, I seldom felt very difficult. Would you tell me what trow everything out the window means?

I am So sorry for being this late in responding. I have no true excuse but I was terribly busy with homework and then I had to figure out how to respond to your very in depth questions. Ireland First. I went to Ireland because my ancestors came from there and its always been a place I've wanted to visit. I spent 10 days in Ireland and traveled all over the southern part of Ireland. If you didn't know Ireland is split into to parts The Republic Of Ireland and Northern Ireland the reason for this being Ireland was originally a colony of England and in 1916 there was an Easter uprising and the people of Ireland revolted against the British. Finally this entire situation resulted in the splitting of the island this to this day doesn't sit well with the irish. No to get on with my trip. If you can get a map it will help to visualize this my mom and I arrived in Dublin on the morning of the 18th and got our car and drove out of the city. we headed towards the birth place of my great grandmother on my fathers side. We ended up being so tired from the flight we just found a B&B and stayed the night and when to the town the next day. we drove through town and meet someone who's mother might have know my great grandmother. after there we went down to Roscommon and then drove through the Burren and then down to Limerick stayed the night in limerick and then went down to Tralee and stayed a night in a castle. That was one of the coolest things. After that we went back up to limerick for a medieval dinner and stayed there a night. after that we went to cork and spent a night there and then went up to Waterford after Water ford we went up to Dublin and stayed our last two nights enjoying Dublin. Ireland is an amazing country the people are the friendliest I have ever known and they have a bi-lingual country the second language being Gaelic. I loved going and ten days is just enough to wet my taste buds and I promised my self I'll go back to Ireland I loved the country and people to much not to.

Your right Since I started working with the story I have definitely noticed some differences and its challenging but I like learning it to much to stop now. Algebra is one of my worst areas of math give me geometry any day and I'll be happy. but I'm persevering and I'll get it eventually. To "Throw it out the window" can be used a couple of ways most often is used to say just start over get a blank slate. its not as common as some other sayings but its still used. hopefully hat answers everybody's questions. and if your classmates have questions about English tell them they can contact me and I would be glad to answer as much as I can. now that I'm caught up from my trip I should be responding more often too.